the atlantic

Zoo security drills prepare workers in the event of an escaped animal.

Media journalist and staunch New York Times defender David Carr died suddenly last night after collapsing in the newsroom. A video of one of his finer moments, grilling the journalistic stunt style of the VICE editors. “Just because you put on a safari helmet and looked at some poop doesn’t give you the right to insult what we do.” [YouTube]

The most honest, beautiful and horrifying account of addiction we’ve ever read, by David Carr. [The New York Times]

The best slide show we have ever seen. Zoo security drills for when animals escape. Incredible. [The Atlantic]

Record prices set for Ai Weiwei and Mark Bradford last night at Phillips London. [Baer Faxt]

Also, Christie’s has acquired Collectrium, an online database management system akin to ArtBinders that helps gallerists manage their inventory and track their sales. Wonder how Christie’s will use this software. [Baer Faxt]

I have no idea what the hell is going on with this booby performance costume at the #CAA conference, but I will be investigating further. [@nikkigphd on Twitter]

GIF artist Rebecca Mock has accused Diplo of ripping one of her GIFs to promote his new song. [Dazed Digital]

Weird. A listicle on the relationship details of art world power couples because Valentine’s Day. Many of those on the list are dead. Still, stories about people brought together by shared intellectual interests is better than the usual crap. [artnet News]

One of life’s great questions, explained: Is coconut oil just for rubbing on your titties, or is it truly a superfood? [Shannon’s Kitchen]

Walter Liedtke, who served as a curator in the European painting department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than 35 years, was amongst the five killed in the Metro-North crash yesterday. [The New York Times]

Atlanta residents sure are jittery. After a driver mistook a pinhole camera made from soda can for a bomb—it was duct taped to the 14th Street bridge over interstates 75 and 85—the police department deployed a bomb squad and shut down the highway. “I felt bad for the student, because this was his art project,” the man who called in the bomb told local NBC affiliate 11 Alive. “I hope he at least got an A.” [Hyperallergic]

The Broad Museum will open to the public on September 15, 2015, across the street from MOCA and . Funded by Eli and Edith Broad, and set to include works from their private collection. [The Broad]

Pay your taxes. New York officials have subpoenaed several galleries and collectors for failure to pay state income tax. The last time the government cracked down on unpaid taxes on high-end art was in 2002. Suspicions abound that the publicity of high-dollar works at auction helped spur the investigation. [The New York Times]

For reviews of little-known and out-of-print sci-fi paperbacks. [Hypercastle]

Artist Tania Bruguera tells the Miami New Times that Cuban officials have been spying on her personal calls. She continues to be detained on the island. [Miami New Times]

Add Scott McCloud’s The Sculptor to the very short list of graphic novels featuring an artist as the main character. From the sounds of it, the premise seems to be whether you’d give up your life for your art. Drama, drama, drama. [The Atlantic]

If you can manage all of the pop-up ads, check out these horoscopes for horses. Eh, or not. [Equine Whispers]

There’s something about outsider artists that eludes insiders, postulates Sarah Boxer as she nears the end of a trend piece on outsider art rise within the art world. I’d suggest it’s something a little more simple; some of us need a break from the unending stream of contemporary art shown at fairs, biennials, and triennials. –PJ [The Atlantic]

A massive Pre-Raphaelite mural was discovered at the William Morris house in London. The mural’s briefly mysterious subject matter was revealed by an explanation offered up on Twitter. [The Guardian]

A Prezi-style map documenting the real estate changes that occurred under Bloomberg hit the front page of the Times this weekend. [The New York Times]

There’s also a bunch of two minute videos featuring notable New Yorkers weighing in on Bloomberg’s legacy. [The New York Times]

This month, n+1 debuted a new, evil-themed edition. So far, I’ve heard rave reviews about Chris Kraus’ “Kelly Lake Store,” a failed Guggenheim application for revitalizing a corner store in Hibbing, Minnesota. My issue hasn’t arrived in the mail yet, but I found an earlier, shorter version of Kraus’ application over on The Brooklyn Rail. I haven’t found the “evil” part yet. [n+1, The Brooklyn Rail]

Gregory Kloehn, a Brooklyn resident, has converted a dumpster into what amounts to a 1970s camper to serve as his apartment. [F’d in Park Slope]

73-year-old Chinese immigrant Pei-Shen Qian has been caught at the heart of an $80 billion dollar forgery scandal. The Woodhaven, Queens resident has been accused of painting fake Modernist masters, which were then sold by Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales to the Upper East Side’s Knoedler Gallery. [The New York Times]

Ever wonder why lobster remains an expensive item at restaurants when its wholesale value has been plummeting? Your answer here. [The New Yorker]

Bad ideas never die. Following The Atlantic’s profile on Jamie Beck’s incredible single-handed transformation of GIFs into “a respected art form” (pretty girl’s hair + wind = art), the Daily Mail has found other hair models to feature. Dubbed “cinemagraphs”, writer Daniel Bates (who, notably, is not an art writer – the Mail doesn’t have those) says these new GIFs “take ‘stills’ to the next level”. As I mentioned the other day, the underlying assumption here is that photography needs to be legitimated by cinema, as do GIFs.

This week in Massive Links: GIFs now high brow according to the Atlantic! Also, the magazine does us the favor of locating all the bad public art in the country. Was this really necessary? Dealer and Entrepreneur Jen Bekman waxes on art as does star curator and non-profit director Dan Cameron. Contrary to 20×200 business model, Kevin Kelly thinks sharing will eventually trump ownership in the cloud.